On Jun 25, 2008 at 13:45, “Parrot Nation” was hatched. I’ve gotten more reads in a day now than I had in the the first month. I had no big ideas, no real plans and no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I was a writer and starting this blog was a means to write, to express myself and to hopefully become a better writer in the process. My first post was a mere 58 words and contained a black and white photograph of Parker, my African Grey. But it ignited something in me. It became more than a hobby or a means to get my “writing Ya-Ya’s” out. If you are truly a writer, you don’t do it because you want to. You do it because you have to. You simply do it. It is as much a part of you as breathing.

As I wrote, the blog began evolving. There were the two trips I made to the Cincinnati Zoo where I worked as a Keeper. Those were fun to write about:

 

I also began writing about the way I feed my birds:

“Teenie Weenie Beanies” for Birds

I went on and on (and on) about the “Chop” concept mostly because I believe in it so strongly:

Lotsa “Chop!”

The blog just took me to whatever place I was in at the time. Looking back, I wrote about food, birds, bird food, dog food, Christmas with my birds, and I wrote a book review.  I wrote about saving money:

I blogged about going to the dollar store for enrichment items, cleaning up after my parrots, making feather scarves and I had a contest:

I blogged about where I was flying to, posted photos of my hotel rooms, and photos of food. I wrote about the Houston Parrot Festival:

Me With Dr. Irene Pepperberg of Harvard

I wrote about the Midwest Bird Expo:

Irena Schulz, Sy Montgomery and Me

I wrote about other writers, other bloggers and I blogged about blogging:

I also wrote about not blogging. So many people start a blog and then they abandon it like some lost puppy. Or they never really get it going. Or they have no direction for it. I find that kind of sad. I really didn’t have much direction when I began “Parrot Nation.” So I began figuring out what this blog was and how it became a part of my life, what it evolved from and where it’s going.  I tried to look after it like I would one of my birds. I didn’t want it to perish. I wanted it to thrive and become routine for people to pop over and see what kind of information I had found and wanted to share. It became more than just a place for me to express myself or talk about what I did that day, although that certainly has its place. It became a service of sorts to others. It became a legitimate place where one could go to see some photos and learn something I had also learned or seen or attended or experienced. Somehow through all of this and 180 published posts later, it became its own place; its own destination. It became the “Parrot Nation.” And it has started to become more than just a blog. It’s becoming a community. I like that because when there are many people involved in something, it becomes more than just you. And there is something quite satisfying about belonging to something.

I realize it’s never going to be like “Pioneer Woman,” and it’s not controversial enough to get the hits “Margaret and Helen” gets. It’s too specialized; too narrow of a subject for people to come screaming in from all over everywhere. Lots of people have kids so “Mommy Blogs” are quite popular. But I don’t have kids. I have parrots. And there’s less people who have parrots than have  kids. But it is what it is and it has found its way from being a hope, to being a reality.

I do get some interesting feedback and it does come from different parts of the world so I know there are people reading it all over the globe. But “The Huffington Post” it isn’t!

And I don’t mind that.

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